The growth of plants is dependent on efficiency of photosynthesis, therefore, light is required; however, light intensity is reduced by pollutants, particulates, and shading. In regions of high latitudes, particularly during seasons of short days and inclement weather, low light intensity and short periods of exposure to sunlight limit the growth of green plants. Moreover, in greenhouses, light is lost in the course of transmission through membranes, artificial electrical illumination and protective housings. Under conventional row crop cultivation situations, light is lost to absorption by the ground itself. When cultivated under electrical illumination, photosynthetic efficiency is of utmost importance under the relatively low light intensities that must be maintained to sustain affordability. There is a profound need to redistribute the light in a manner that shines light up to the plant and, thereby, adding to the available light for photosynthesis. Furthermore, at certain times, too much light, to the point of light saturation, may result in photoinhibition and photorespiration. These physiological events that run counter to photosynthesis under light saturative environmental conditions have long been known to effectively reduce and sap productivity. Therefore a concomitant requirement for photosafening the inhibitory effects of light saturation should be met.
The growth of plants is also dependent on the availability of glucose, especially in cells, but the timely and direct release of stored glucose and the substrates for intracellular displacement of glucose from storage have not been previously defined. Furthermore, the involvement of α-D-glycopyranose in metabolic pathways of pyranoses also has not been completely defined.
Generally, substituted-α-D-glycopyranosides have been typically regarded as inactivated in a plant and therefore, incapable of eliciting any plant growth activity by exogenously making them available to the plant. However, contrary to prior teachings, the methods and formulations of the embodiments disclosed herein apply substituted glycopyranosides to plants. Once these selected glycopyranosides enter the cell, they act as exogenous substrates for displacement of glucose, having recognized that most substituted-α-D-glycopyranosides displace glucose from storage in glycoproteins. Glucose is the energy store in any plant and the application of α-D-glycopyranosides to allocate carbon into the largest displacement from storage glycoproteins may open crops to the proportionate enhancement of yield potential.
It is an object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide methods for treating and cultivating plants with redistributed light for enhancing plant growth. It is a further object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide the option for methods and formulations for photosafening plants by applying a formulation comprising one or more glycopyranosides, preferably, α-D-glycopyranose compounds, to the plants that may be exposed to light saturation resulting from extra light refracted or reflected from silicon-based substrates.
It is a further object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide methods and formulations for treating plants and photosafening from saturated light environments by applying a formulation comprising one or more glycopyranosides, preferably substituted-α-D-glycopyranosides, and most preferably alkyl-α-D-mannopyranoside; and salts, derivatives and combinations thereof, to plants.
It is a still further object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide methods and formulations for treating plants and enhancing growth by applying a formulation of one or more synthetic components of glycopyranosides to plants, such as the highly preferred electron-donating aryl-α-D-glycopyranosides, of which a preferred example is aminophenyl-α-D-mannopyranoside.
It is a further object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide methods and formulations for treating plants and enhancing plant growth by applying a formulation of one or more substituted-α-D-glycopyranosides to green plants.
It is yet a further object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide methods and formulations for treating plants and enhancing plant growth by applying one or more compounds selected from a group consisting of glycopyranosides, salts and derivatives thereof and combinations thereof, to plants, particularly green plants, as photosafeners to light saturation when they are cultivated in the presence of a solid medium that will redirect light for enhanced photosynthetic efficiency.
Yet another object of embodiments disclosed herein is to provide formulations for endogenous biochemical processing of one or more compounds selected from a group consisting of highly substituted α-D-glycopyranosyl-glycoproteins resulting from exogenous applications with the aforementioned glycopyranosidic compounds, salts and derivatives thereof and combinations thereof, to plants.
It is a further object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide methods for the activation of the aforementioned glycopyranosidic compounds, with the divalent cations of calcium and manganese.
It is yet a further object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide methods for the chemical synthesis of one or more compounds selected from a group consisting of highly substituted α-D-glycopyranosides over the catalysts, Mn, Ca and K.
It is a further embodiment to exploit the alkaline qualities of sodalime silicate microbeads to sequester the climate change gas, carbon dioxide. The culture of plants in microbeads was achieved by development of a system for maintaining pH-appropriate environments with continuous flow through of acidic plant nutrients, including elevated levels of carbon dioxide gas.
It is a further object of embodiments disclosed herein to provide methods for the activation of the aforementioned glycopyranosidic compounds, with the divalent cations of calcium and manganese.
These and other objects will become apparent from the description herein together with any drawings and claims.